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How to Find An Effective Computer Work From Home

admin — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 22:00:40 +0000

There are many computer work-from-home opportunities over the internet today. With the many choices that you have, it is virtually impossible to pick just one and hope that it is the most lucrative one around. But really, you have to do just that. Choosing too many work-from-home opportunities will divide your attention with too many concerns. And that would cause you to have divided income as well.

The best and the most profitable business around is still the selling business. Companies earn through selling their products or promoting their service. And if you partner with flourishing company, their success is likely to brush off you. So the choice of your company is very crucial. It is only important that you select a company that has a great future and your potential for growth is secured.

The compensation that these companies give their agent is an essential factor to consider as well. You should be paid a good amount in order to build an empire. The company that has the most creative way of paying commissions is the one that you should choose. The more streams of income they have, the more chances you have from earning through their opportunity.

However, it is essential that the company really have the ability to pay you back. Some companies are very bold in showing their agents the different ways to earn. But come pay check time, they are struggling to send you your money. Check the background of the company that you would like to join. The longer they are in the business, the better. And the more satisfied their roster of agents with the payment schemes, the better it is for you.

There are many MLM opportunities in the internet today. But not all of them can genuinely make you rich. You have to specifically choose the program where you know you can perform well. You can choose according to your likes, preferences, experiences, and expertise. The more you know about the opportunity, the better you will perform on it. If you like the products, you will sell it easier. If you know about the process and the product, you will be able to show your customers the advantages of using them instead of trying anything else.

The real key in generating massive income from the internet or through your computer is investing your time, effort, and knowledge on it. Without actual hands-on experience on the job, you won’t be able to get the income stream that you really want. Be sure that you learn everything about the company and the rest of the processes around it. This would allow you to formulate the right strategies that make allow you to earn the best possible way.

Support is also important. Be sure that the company you will be joining has lots of tools, resources, and community that you can take advantage of. These tools could help you a lot without requiring you to make additional investments.

If you are new in this type of business opportunities, especially in MLM’s, try to join something that virtually has no start-up costs. This would allow you to just have the feel of the entire business without losing anything. After you know the ropes, then you should be ready for bigger risks and for bigger income.

By: Daegan Smith

Wireless Network Card Troubleshooting – Blue Screen of Death

admin — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 21:27:26 +0000

As Wi-Fi hotspots are mushrooming all over the world, they let people have the chance to get rid of those inflexible network cables and surf on the net wirelessly in the WLAN. However, a high-performance wireless Internet access is not an easy thing for some users, because when contacting with your wireless network, your wireless network adapter may probably meet a lot of strange failures, which may seriously affect your networking experience if you don’t fix them in time, and the blue screen is one that among those common failures.

If blue screen shows on your computer immediately after you installed a wireless network card, above all, you need to check whether the net card driver you installed is compatible with your operating system, for example, if your driver is only available in Windows 2000, but you have installed it in Windows XP, well then your computer would be more likely to have a blue screen. Therefore, make sure you have installed the correct network card driver.

If your driver is compatible with your system and has been installed properly, you need to go through the installation of this network adapter, and check whether it has inserted to the right slot or port properly, for if you pull out the card from its PCMCIA port on the motherboard or its USB port just a few seconds after plugging it, blue screen would lightly happen, because frequent pullout and plug may make network adapter’s corresponding port confused and fail to identify this adapter. Additionally, if you pull out your net card suddenly when its LINK light is blinking, that would also leads to blue screen, or even worse, your computer or your network card’s port would be damaged.

By: Molly Smith

What is a Network Attached Storage (NAS) Device?

admin — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 01:44:28 +0000

Network Attached Storage devices are also known as NAS devices and NAS drives. They are mainly used to backup your files to a central external hard drive so if you have multiple PC’s the files can still be accessed directly instead of having multiple copies of each file stored on each PC. This prevents you from getting into document synchronization hell. But NAS drives are so much more than an external hard drive; it is where you and your family can share files like pictures, music, documents etc.

The flexibility of some of these NAS devices have the ability to increase storage capacity by adding additional hard drives as well as decrease the risk of losing all your precious files if the hard drive in the NAS device fails. These are available on the market now but can come at a price though. Personally I use a single drive solution and use online backup to store my valuable pics and documents but that’s not to say the option is not there for individuals and businesses to pay a bit more to get RAID capable Network Attached Storage Devices. More and more small to medium sized businesses are buying these instead of buying expensive servers and having to configure them as file servers. Some NAS devices are capable of being print servers as well but the majority of them need to be connected directly to the printer, so please ensure you read the tech specs first before buying.

For those individuals or businesses that need a bit more from a standard NAS drive there are ones that have more features and richer functionality. Some are capable of joining AD domains, some are capable of streaming films to DNLA compliant devices, therefore capable of wirelessly streaming your films to devices like PS3 and Xbox’s.

By: Jon William Jones

Work From Home on the Computer

admin — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 07:46:27 +0000

You have probably heard of the many work from home computer jobs that have gotten popular over the last few years. If you are interested in working from home, you might wonder what jobs are available to you, and whether you need experience or a college degree to start such a career. Luckily, there are plenty of options out there available to anyone who has the desire and basic tools to start working from home using the computer.

One of the most popular ways to work from home on the computer is to join an affiliate marketing program. This is because you do not need a degree or experience to do this job. You might even be successful with no prior experience, but it definitely helps if you have been in sales or marketing before. In this job, you need to somehow persuade people to visit a company’s website and purchase a product. You will make a commission from each sale that you helped sell. In order to get people to the site in the first place, you often have to be creative. Marketing skills are definitely helpful here.

If you are not interested in marketing or sales, there are other options. If you do not mind data entry, there are plenty of companies that find this task tedious and would love to pay someone else to input their data into various computer programs. Again, this does not require a degree, although prior experience is helpful and will allow you to get more clients. If you are seeking experience when you first start out, you could initially start with lower prices than many people in the market. This way, companies that cannot afford a very experienced person are more likely to hire you. You could obviously increase your prices after you are more experienced.

In fact, the same general process goes for any other work from home on the computer job. Whether you choose to start a career dealing with writing, data entry, transcription, marketing, or any other skill, it is possible to make money without much experience. Keeping your prices below typical market value at first will help you obtain your first few customers, offering you the experience that is often needed to increase your prices. Once you have had a few steady clients and completed some large projects, you might think about making a website and even gaining a business license eventually. The possibilities are endless when you work from home, as you truly have control over your life and career.

By: Brian McCoy

Using Firewalls to Protect Your Computer From Attack

admin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:13:45 +0000

A personal firewall will have a variety of levels of protection that depends on whether your computer is connected to the Internet or to a network. A computer on a home network will often have shared files with other computers on the network and will also access the same resources, such as printers. If this is the case there will be more access than if the computers are connecting to the Internet.

Connecting to the Internet is risky and needs to be controlled. Firewalls should be set to restrict certain data that is outgoing and incoming as well as close any ports that aren’t being used. A port is a standardized number that routes Internet traffic with the use of network software.

You don’t need to be a computer expert. Most firewall settings are configured according to default. If you need to modify these settings you’ll usually get an alert when you’re making the change.

There are two basic components to a personal firewall. The first component will look at the data when it comes into your computer to decide whether or not the data should be allowed to pass through. The second component will set up certain policies for some applications. These policies can be relaxed since they simply let certain programs have access to the Internet.

The first component is known as the “packet filter”. This filter will take a look at each packet of data and will let it pass through or let it drop. These packets are composed of data that is routed on the network. There are rules for these packets, which are called polices, that let data pass or decide which data fails to meet the policy standards. Failure to meet these policies will give an alert or else just drop the packet depending on how the firewall has been configured.

The second component is known as the “application filter”. This filter will decide whether certain programs are allowed to receive and send data through one port or another. A browser will need to have access to the Internet so a policy is put into place that allows the receiving and sending of data using Port 80, which is a standard number.

Just because the web browser is using Port 80, and other ports are blocked by the personal firewall, your computer still won’t be secure.

An application filter is set up for certain programs and not the particular components of these programs. Every program will have more than one module, each of which can be infected. In a Windows environment these are known as DDLs (dynamic link libraries).

In most cases your antivirus software will be able to determine if a module is infected but any new viruses, that are not yet part of the antivirus database, may slip by undetected. Your computer system will be vulnerable if your personal firewall allows this to happen.

A firewall won’t give you complete protection against viruses and hackers. A firewall is only effective for keeping some hackers out of your system and you should supplement your system with antivirus software. You should also practice safe file sharing procedures.

There is one main rule to follow with firewalls: If you don’t know what is trying to accessing your computer consider it a risk.

By: Paul Wilcox

Computer Networking

admin — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:35:48 +0000

Computer networking is a process of sharing data and shared resources between two or more connected computers. The shared resources can include printer, Fax modem, Hard disk, CD – DVD Rom, Database and the data files. A computer network can be divided into a small or local area network, a networking between computers in a building of a office (LAN), medium sized network (MAN), a network between two offices in a city and Wide network (WAN) a network between the computers, one is locally and the other can be thousands of miles away in any other country of the world.

WAN connectivity is achieved by a network device known as “Router”. The internet is the world’s largest WAN network, where millions of computers from all over the globe and connected with each other.

Networking is the practice of linking two or more computers or devices with each other. The connectivity can be wired or wireless. A computer network can be categorized in different ways, depends on the geographical area as mentioned above.

There are two main types of the computer network client-server and peer to peer. In the client server computing, a computer plays a major role known as server, where the files, data in the form of web pages, docs or spread sheet files, video, database & resources are placed.

All the other computers in the client/server network are called clients and they get the data from the server. In the peer to peer network all the computers play the same role and no computer act as a centralized server. In the major businesses around the world client-server network model is in major use.

A network topology defines the structure, design or layout of a network. There are different topologies like bus, ring, star, mesh, hybrid etc. The star topology is most commonly used network topology. In the star topology, all the computers in the network are connected with a centralized device such as hub or switch. Thus forms a star like structure. If the hubs/switch fails to work for any reason then all the connectivity and communication between the computers of a network will be halted.

In the network, a common communication language is used by the computers and the network devices and this language is known as protocols. The most commonly used and popular protocols on the internet and in the home and other networks is called TCP/IP. TCP/IP is not a singleprotocol but it is a suite of several protocols.

A network can be a wired or wireless and TCP/IP protocol can work both in types of network.

A data flow in a computer network can be divided into seven logical layers called OSI layersmodel that was developed by Intel and Xerox Corporation and was standardized by ISO.

1. Application layer

2. Presentation layer

3. Session layer

4. Transport layer

5. Network layer

6. Data Link layer

a. Media access control sub-layer

b. Logical link control sub-layer

7. Physical layer.

A network can be divided into different scales and ranges and it depends on the requirement of the network and the geographical location. Computer Network can be divided into Local Area Network, Personal Area Network, Campus Area Network, Wireless Local Area Network,Metropolitan Area Network and Wide Area Network.

There are several network connection methods like HomePNA, Power line communication, Ethernet and Wifi connection method.A network can also be categorized into several different types based on the services it provides like Server farms, Storage area networks, Value control networks, Value-Added networks,SOHO network, Wireless network and Jungle networks.

By: Bushra Bashir

Connect To The Desktop Of Your Home Computer Via The Internet

admin — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:06:05 +0000

We live in the age of global communication and connectivity. Could you imagine 10 years ago if you had told someone you’d be sitting in a coffee shop, connected to a world wide network, with no wires connected to your laptop, reading the latest news or even playing a game with your friends?

They would have suggested that you are mad! Fortunately, that is not the case and we do live in a world where global communications are standard and almost everyone has their own permanent connection to the internet via broadband.

What if, via this worldwide communications network, you could not only read the latest news or do your grocery shopping online; you could actually remotely control your PC at home! Think about this for a minute, what would this allow you to do? Would it allow you to remotely use any applications you may have installed at home, such as accountancy applications, spreadsheets or documents? Allow you to check any downloads you may have progressing at home? Check on emails that only come in to your email client? The possibilities really are endless. There is a solution at hand, and in this article I will focus on using the inbuilt features of Microsoft Windows XP Professional, namely, Remote Desktop.

If you have never used remote desktop before, don’t be worried. It’s a simple feature that does what is says, presents you with your desktop via a client. If you look in Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Communications, you will see a Remote Desktop Client application.

Using this application, you can enter a computer name or IP address to connect to. You can even map your home computers hard drives as well, so that they appear in windows explorer, and even print to the printer beside you, from your home computer, over the internet!

Try it at home if you have two computers. You need to make sure that Remote Desktop is enabled first, and this can be done by selecting System from Control Panel, selecting the remote tab, and ensuring that “Allow users to connect remotely to this computer” is enabled. If you plan to do this at home, take note of the “Full computer name”, as this is what you will need to enter into the remote desktop client to connect to this computer.

I know you are worried about security at this point, but don’t worry – we’ll address that later.

Now, if you do have two computers at home, try it and see what happens! You should be presented with the familiar login box, and once logged in – ta-da! You are now on the desktop of the other computer, using the remote desktop application on your local computer!

Now – what if this functionality could be extended; so that you can connect to your home PC from anywhere in the world provided you are connected to the internet? Fortunately, this can be done! There are seven steps that we need to do in order to achieve this.

1. Ensure that your computer will accept remote desktop requests

2. Make sure your password is strong!

3. Note down your IP addresses

4. Change the port number that remote desktop responds on (this will aid with security)

5. Ensure any local firewalls are not blocking the Remote Desktop Port.

6. Create the necessary port forwarding rules on your home router

7. Sign up to a Dynamic DNS service (ignore if you have a static IP address from your ISP)

Let me explain these steps and how to perform each one.

1. Ensure your computer will accept remote desktop requests. As above, you need to select the System icon from Control Panel, and, from the remote tab, ensure that “Allow users to connect remotely to this computer” is enabled.

2. Make sure you password is strong! If your password is not very secure, make sure you change it so that it has at least 8 characters, at least one uppercase character and at least one symbol. One way to do this is to use symbols/numbers as a substitute for letters. For example, say I wanted my password to be the name of my son, Benjamin. Instead of using Benjamin as my password, I could use 83nj@m1n! , which as you can see, is a lot more secure than Benjamin.

3. Note down your IP addresses. We need to make a note of your internal and external IP addresses. To do this, go to Start -> Run and type cmd . Then click OK. Type ipconfig and look for the IP address entry. In this example, we will use 192.168.01. This is your internal IP address. Now browse to http://www.whatismyip.com Take a note of your IP address, in this example, we will use 1.2.3.4. This is your external IP address.

Things will get a bit techy from this point on. The tasks we need to perform are pretty straight forward, however, if you have any questions, please ask a technical friend first or consult online help from the internet as an error in the below steps could cause your computer to malfunction or cause you internet connectivity problems.

4. Change the port number that remote desktop responds on. This will require you editing the registry. Go to Start -> Run and type regedit . Then click OK and you will be presented with the Windows Registry. I won’t get into detail about the registry now, there are books as thick as encyclopaedias written on the windows registry, suffice to say, if you don’t know what you are doing, don’t mess around with it!

Now, if you browse through the tree to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlTerminal ServerWinstationsRDP-Tcp. Once there, look for an entry in the right hand pane called “PortNumber”. Double click this entry and select decimal. Now, this will be 3389 by default. Make sure you change this to a number of your choosing, above 1024 and below 65534. In this case, lets you 23456. I highly recommend making this number as obscure as possible to avoid people discovering an open port via portscan! Click OK, and close down Registry Editor.

One caveat to this, what port you decide to use, may affect the usability of this feature. Some companies will block ports that are not in common use, so 23456 will be blocked. Other companies allow all ports, as do most home users. If you choose a common port, such as port 80 or 443, it may allow you more access from secure networks, however will allow hackers to more easily see your PC on the internet.

Even using a higher port number will still render you vulnerable to certain attacks, however, the risk is severely minimised when using a higher port number. I and a number of colleagues have used this technology for a number of years without incident; however remember when allowing any connectivity over the internet, there is always a risk! This choice in functionality is up to you.

5. Ensure any local firewalls are not blocking the Remote Desktop Port. This step will most likely requiring you to check the instructions with your particular desktop firewall product. What you will need to do here is ensure that anyone is allowed to connect to the port number used above. This is usually in the form of a firewall rule and looks similar to the below:

Allow Anyone using protocol TCP 23456 in both directions to connect to My computer. Once again, this will require consulting your desktop firewall instructions.

Now, before we go any further we need to make sure this change has taken effect. Reboot your computer, and, if you have another computer on your LAN, try and remote desktop to your computer with the “:portnumber” at the end, for example. Mycomputer:23456, or your IP address, 192.168.0.1:23456. Make sure this works before continuing or else the next steps will not work.

6. Create the necessary port forwarding rules on your home router. This step will depend on your particular home router. You will need to connect to this and define a port forwarding rule similar to the following:

Allow anyone -> Using Port TCP 23456 (substitute for your port number above) to connect to 192.168.0.1 (substitute for your internal IP address). You may need to consult the manual for your router regarding port forwarding for this. You may need to define a particular protocol or server for TCP 23456 (substitute for your particular port number above). This is the hardest step of all so it may take you a while to achieve.

7. Sign up to a Dynamic DNS service (ignore if you have a static IP address from your ISP). If you know your external IP address will never change, ignore this step. If however, you have a dynamic IP from your ISP, you will need to perform this step.

This step is to ensure that if you external IP address changes, it will be registered on the internet so you can still connect to your PC. The best service I have found to use is http://www.dyndns.com.

Sign up here and enter a hostname that you would like to use, ie, myname.dyndns.com. Follow the instructions here to ensure that your external IP address is always updated on the internet.

8. Finally, you are ready to go. If you have completed all the steps above successfully, you’ll want to test this out. The best choice will be to go to a friend’s house with home broadband, and test connecting in. Once connected to the internet, load up your remote desktop client, and enter either you external IP address or DNS name, eg 1.2.3.4:23456 or myname.dyndns.com:23456.

Chances are this may not work the first time, so, I have included below tests that you can perform at each stage to determine where the problem may be.

1. Ensure that your computer will accept remote desktops requests. The best way to check this is to go to Start -> Run and type cmd . Then type “telnet 127.0.0.1 portnumber” ie, “telnet 127.0.0.1 23456”. This should return a blank cmd window if successful, and an error if unsuccessful. If this is successful, move on to the next step. If this is unsuccessful, make sure Remote Desktop Connections to you PC are enabled and the port number is correct. You can do this by typing “telnet 127.0.0.1 3389” in the same cmd window as before, and if this is successful, your remote desktop port number has not yet changed. You may need to reboot your PC or check the above registry entry.

2. Make sure your password is strong! This test I will leave to you to ensure your password is correct.

3. Note down your IP addresses. Make sure that all your IP addresses are correct!

4. Change the port number that remote desktop responds on. You can check this has been set successfully by going to Start -> Run and type cmd . Then type “telnet 127.0.0.1 portnumber” ie, “telnet 127.0.0.1 23456”. This should return a blank cmd window if successful, and an error if unsuccessful. If this is successful, move on to the next step. If this is unsuccessful, make sure Remote Desktop Connections to you PC are enabled and the port number is correct. You can do this by typing “telnet 127.0.0.1 3389” in the same cmd window as before, and if this is successful, your remote desktop port number has not yet changed. You may need to reboot your PC or check the above registry entry.

5. Ensure any local firewalls are not blocking the Remote Desktop Port. The best way to test this functionality, if you can, is to use a PC on your LAN. From a PC on the same network as yours, type “telnet ”, ie “telnet 192.168.0.1 23456”. If you receive a blank cmd window, then this is working OK. If you receive an error, and all the above tests are successful, then this indicates that something on your PC is blocking this connection. You will need to look at any local firewalls that may be preventing this access (including the inbuilt Microsoft Firewall).

If this step works, also ensure that your local firewall is not just allowing computer on your local network and nothing else to connect. I stress again, make sure you read the instructions that came with your desktop firewall.

6. Create the necessary port forwarding rules on your home router. This is the most problematic part of the process. To check this, you will need to be on another broadband connection. Once connected, navigate to Start -> Run and type cmd . Then type “telnet ” ie, “telnet 1.2.3.4 23456”. Once again, this should return a blank cmd window if successful and an error if unsuccessful. If all the tests above have been successful, and this command is unsuccessful, then this problem indicates there is an issue on the router port forwarding the Remote Desktop request. Ensure that you have read the manual and port forwarded this successfully.

7. Sign up to a Dynamic DNS service. You can test this simply by performing the same command as above. If “telnet externalip portnumber” works, and “telnet myname.dyndns.com portnumber” does not, then there is a problem with this service. From a cmd window, type ping myname.dyndns.com and see if it returns a reply. If not, then you will need to check the online help with regards to this service.

That should be it; you should now be able to connect to your home PC from almost any internet connection. Remember you can use advanced features of the remote desktop client such as connecting your local drives, printers etc.

I suggest you have a quick look at the help that comes with Remote Desktop Client to explore everything that it can provide you with.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, the possibilities for this use are endless depending on your own individual needs, and I imagine that as technologies such as 3G and GPRS are improved, this ability will extend to your PDA device as well so that you can access your home PC on the move, that’s if you are not carrying around a small PC and mini holographic projector in your top pocket by then!

By: David Leonard

The New Zune 4GB Review

admin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:48:18 +0000

The new Zune 4GB digital media player is out. The 4GB model, along with the 8GB and 80GB models now give Zune fans alternatives to the popular Original 30GB model. The new 4GB player is smaller than the original at: 3.6″ Height x 1.63″ Width x 0.33″ Depth. The viewing screen is also smaller at 1.8″, (3″ screen for the 30GB Zune). The price is also a bit smaller than the 30GB model. 4GB of storage memory may sound meager when compared to the new Zune 80GB’s hard drive. 4GB is still enough memory to store 1,000 songs at 128kbs playback, 25,000 JPEG pictures or about 12 hours of video at a 512kbs playback speed. Things have certainly changed, I remember my first laptop computer, bought in ‘92 had only a 40MB hard drive – 100 times smaller than the Zune 4GB’s flash memory.

The new 4GB model comes in a variety of colors and includes ear bud headphones and covers. You will have to purchase the charger for the built-in battery separately however. The build-in FM radio feature, present on all Zune models is something you can’t get on an iPod. All Zune models support the most popular audio; (AAC, MP3, WMA, Protected WMA), and video; (WMV), playback formats.

The 4GB model provides the opportunity to get a much smaller, even more portable personal media player at a more affordable price. The trade-offs are less video viewing area and the need to down, and upload from your personal computer more often. The new touch-pad design makes browsing content much faster and easier. You don’t have to physically connect to your computer to download content if you have a wireless computer network at home. As with all Zunes, you have the ability to share songs and media and download free video selections over the wireless connectivity feature. The Social lives on.

You can access millions of songs in the Zune Marketplace. Downloading music and video is easy. there are lots of choices to download music – with Pass subscription, through Microsoft points, or a host of other online media providers and member sites. Play lists from Marketplace editors are constantly being updated and published for weekly viewing on the Zune, as well as artist biographies and stories from top music and video online magazines.

All the new Zune models and application upgrades provide consumers more choice. More choice is great and the Zune 4GB will offer some people just the right combination of ultra-portability, ease of use and features they have been looking for.

By: Mark Yarbrough

Buying Network Cables For Your Servers

admin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 05:00:36 +0000

Network cables are commonly known as RJ45 cables and are used to physically connect servers and computers to allow the sharing of data. Data can be in the form of computers talking to one another or for specific uses such as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol).

The network cables come in many colours, commonly blue, black, green, grey, orange, purple, white and yellow. The defacto standard for data is normally grey and many IT administrators use blue for voice data. Black is normally used for cross over cables. Cross over cables allow two computers to connect together without using a network hub. Which ever colouring sytem you use, it is important to stick to these colours so that other members of the IT team can understand at a glance the use of the specific network cable. Most IT departments will have strict codes which must be adhered to on what colour to use with the varying data types.

The network cables come in various lengths. Most commonly they 0.5m, 1m, 1.5m, 2m, 3m, 5m, 7m, 9m, 10m, 15m, 20m, 25m, 30m, 40m and 50m, the most common of these is the 0.5m network cables. The reason being is that they are used most in the connection of network switches. Have a look at the back of any large server and you will see row after row of these small network cables. Every now and again, you will see an imitation of spaghetti junction behind a server, where cables have been used that have not been in stock at the time. Whilst this will still make the system work, it is untidy and something that most IT administrators are meticulous about. Good housekeeping, properly used network cables.

Using RJ45 cables with gold plated plugs ensure a longer life for your network cable significantly reducing erosion and provides better contact.

There are various different qualities for each cable. Cat5e RJ45 cables are generally used for 10/100 networks (which are 10MBit and 100Mbit network card compatble, although they do work at 1GBit). Cat6e RJ45 cables are the standard cable for 1GBit networks and are well shielded to prevent data loss. Using a Cat5e cable on a 1GBit is not the standard network cable that should be used as it does not have the shielding.

From High street retailers to online suppliers you will see the price of a cable varies dramatically. Without question the high street stores put a large mark up on these types of cables. Mainly due to the low profit they get from their larger hardware items, hence increasing their profitability through peripherals. The cheaper cables of matching, if not better quality, can be found from the online suppliers who are solely dedicated to cable selling. Large savings can be made when buying in bulk from these online retailers.

Every IT department has a budget. Some budgets are large and some are small but it is very important for the upkeep of the computer systems that the correct quality RJ45 cables are used. And for precision it is also important to have the right length and keep to the colour standards defined by the head of the IT department.

By: Neil MacLeod

What Are Network Patch Panels?

admin — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 04:49:07 +0000

Patch panels are used as the central point in a network where all the network cables terminate. It is the grand central station of the network. Networks that use these panels (and almost all modern networks use this technology) are consider “star-networks” or they use the term “star-topology.” This is because if you look at a drawing of your network, all the network nodes (nodes are end-points on the network and include things like computers and printer) all connect back to the central “hub” and it looks like a big starburst. Another term is “spoke-and-wheel” where the “wheel” is your hub and patch panel and the individual cables going out to your nodes (computers and printers) become the spokes.

They come in various types and configurations from the simple wall-mounted 12-port patch panel block, to elaborate 96-port (and more!) rack-mounted patch panel. As was mentioned above, patch panels are rated for speed. So if you are running Cat 6 cable, you will need a Cat 6 patch panel.

Network panels come in various designs and styles. There are patch where the cables plug-in straight (90°), or angled at a 45° angle downwards; there are panels with 110 style punch downs on the back and ones with tool-less punch downs; there are various number of ports on the panels. Check the internet for the vast array of styles available. There are also two different standards for network panels: T568A and T568B mentioned above. Be sure to buy the correct ones for the installation!

It is best to buy patch panels that are rated for both standards. Since the only difference between the two standards is the order of the colored pairs, most manufacturers rate their patch panels for both standards. They simply have both wiring diagrams affixed to their patch panels.

By: Dean Novosat